the tallest tree in the world
Last year for Valentine's Day, Helen and I went to Wilbur Hot Springs for the weekend, and we had a great time soaking in the hot baths, hiking, cooking, eating!This year we decided to go to Orr Hot Springs, which is about 12 miles West of Ukiah.
When I went to look up some trails we could hike in the nearby Montgomery Woods State Reserve, I was surprised to learn that the park is home to the world's tallest tree, a 367' 6" redwood called the "Mendocino Tree". A hike to see the world's tallest tree sounded pretty ideal BUT there was a catch: in order to prevent the Mendocino Tree from being visited to death, it is not marked or identified in any way! In fact, only the rangers and a handful of locals know which tree among the many, many tall trees in the reserve is taller than all the rest. Now we *had* to do this hike!
We got lucky when one of the women who works at Orr Hot Springs turned out to be one of the few people who knows how to find the tree. She gave us a "hint" that we should hike in for about a mile, cross a tree bridge, pass between two halves of another large tree which had long ago fallen across the trail, turn left off the trail, go into the forest about 20 yards, and look up. Here's what we saw:
So if you want to know what the world's tallest tree looks like, it's one of those. Which one? We don't know, and while we were trying to figure it out, I asked Helen to marry me. She said yes, so if you want to know what the happiest guy in the world looks like, he looks something like this:
Hint: he's squatting next to the prettiest girl in the world.